BHP Billiton Chief Executive quits as profits slump

THE chief executive of BHP Billiton became the latest victim of a boardroom cull in the mining industry after it posted slumping profits.

PUBLISHED: PUBLISHED: 00:01, Thu, Feb 21, 2013

Marius Klopper dug the company out of the global financial crisis

Marius Kloppers quit the global miner as it said first-half profits had fallen 43 per cent to £3.71billion, its worst drop in more than a decade. The boss of BHP’s nonferrous business, former BP executive Andrew Mackenzie, will replace him in May.

Kloppers follows his counterparts Tom Albanese at Rio Tinto, Cynthia Carroll at Anglo American and Mick Davis at Xstrata through the exit door. Miners are focusing on streamlining their businesses rather than expanding as global commodity prices fall and costs rise. Kloppers, 50, leaves after nearly six years in the job. “Now is the right time to pass the leadership baton,” he said.

BHP blamed lower commodity prices, a weak US dollar and inflation for the lower profits, outstripping stronger volumes and cost savings. Kloppers won plaudits for leading BHP through the financial crisis in better shape than its peers but disappointed investors with a bid for US shale gas assets that led to £1.8billion in writedowns last year.

His three failed takeover tilts at Rio Tinto, Rio Tinto’s iron ore business and Canada’s Potash Corp, collapsed largely as the company underestimated regulatory concerns.